Materials and Design 101 (2016) 8087

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

3D gel-printingAn additive manufacturing method for producing

complex shape parts
Xiangyuan Ren, Huiping Shao , Tao Lin, Hang Zheng
Institute for Advanced Material & Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A new 3D printing process, 3D gel-printing (3DGP) based on methaerylate-2-hydroxy ethyl (HEMA) gelation
Received 7 December 2015 system, was proposed in this paper, and as an example, 316L stainless steel gear was prepared by 3DGP. The rhe-
Received in revised form 25 February 2016 ological behavior of metal slurry, the surface roughness and strength of green sample and sintered sample were
Accepted 25 March 2016
researched. The results show that the metal slurry with a 316L particle content of 62.5 vol% can be prepared with
Available online 5 April 2016
a HEMA-based gelation system, whose rheological behavior is t for printing. Catalyst can accelerate the gelation
Keywords:
so that complex shape of parts could be setting in time during printing. The green sample has a strength of 16.1
Additive manufacture 2.2 MPa and a roughness of 3.5 0.5 m on top surface. The sintered sample has a homogeneous microstructure
3D printing and no interface between the printed layers and lines was observed. The sintered sample has a roughness of
Gelation 3.8 0.9 m on top surface and a tensile strength of 488 15 MPa. Generally, 3DGP based on HEMA gelation
316L stainless steel system is a promising method for producing complex shape parts.
3D gel-printing 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction been reported to be used for production of parts of different materials

Today, more and more attentions were attracted on the develop-
ment of additive manufacture (AM), which has a high potential for di-
rectly shaping of complex shape parts from 3D computer-aided design
(CAD) database or 3D scanning systems database. Some 3D printing
processes have been developed for producing metal or ceramic parts.
Such processes as three-dimensional printing (3DP), selective laser
sintering (SLS), selective laser melting (SLM), electron beam melting
(EBM), droplet-based metal manufacturing (DMM) have been used to
fabricate 3D metal structures [15].
For metal materials, such as aluminum alloy [3,6], stainless steel
[710], super alloy [11] and titanium alloy [1216], these processes of
SLS, SLM and EBM were typically used to prepare complex shape parts
by repeating the steps of stacking particle layer and directly sintering/
melting the selective area of particles. Generally, these three processes
can produce almost fully dense parts for practical applications, but the
printing equipment of these processes are complicated and their main-
tenance cost is rather high by use of the laser and electron beam system
as well as protective atmosphere. In addition, since temperature chang-
es very quickly, these processes are hard to be used to prepare ceramic
and composites.
It is considered that DMM is an effective and low cost method
for fabricating parts because it can directly deposit metal droplets with-
out expensive equipment comparing with the above direct metal
prototyping methods [17]. In spite of the fact that DMM process has
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: shaohp@ustb.edu.cn (H. Shao).
such as: aluminum alloy parts [18] and Sn-40 wt.% Pb alloy [5], these
materials have lower values of melting temperature. Most of metals of
commercial importance, such as super alloy applied in aerospace led,
have much higher values of surface tension and melting temperature.
By DMM process, super alloy is difcult to melt to form droplets,
let alone to get a smooth surface after solidication.
Thermoplastic 3D Printing (3DTP) [19] is a new additive
manufacturing technique which combines fused deposition modeling
(FDM) and robocasting. The high-load feedstock with thermoplastic
binder systems is extruded through a heated nozzle with xyz position-
ing, which is based on low-pressure injection molding. The 3DTP pro-
cess has been reported to be used for production of parts of different
materials such as alumina [19], zirconia [19] and steel-zirconia compos-
ites [20]. 3DTP could be used for steel, ceramic and composites, but the
device of 3DTP needs a complicated extruding nozzle.
Direct Inkjet Printing (DIP) [21] is a generative solid free-forming
process where cross-sections of a three-dimensional model are deposit-
ed on a substrate layer by layer based on colloidal slurries and virtual
models. In former studies, ceramic suspensions were used as inks for
DIP and some 3-D ceramics parts were successfully printed, such as
zirconia [2223], and silicon nitride [24]. However, there are some prob-
lems constraining the DIP application for metal material, such as prepa-
ration of uniform and stable metal slurry with high content of metal
particles.
To address some problems of the above additive manufacture
process, a new AM process, named as 3D gel-printing (3DGP), was
proposed in this paper in consideration of the advantages of DIP
process and gelation. The principle of gelation is based on radical

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2016.03.152
0264-1275/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 X. Ren et al. / Materials and Design 101 (2016) 8087 81

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the 3DGP process.

polymerization of organic monomer, forming a macro polymeric net- 2. Experimental

work to hold particles together [25]. This 3DGP process has some advan-
tages over other processes. First, the applicable range of materials is
wide and includes metal, ceramic and their composites. Second, the
cost of printing equipment is low because such as high-energy beam,
device of spreading powder are not required. Third, the cost of printing
parts is low because protective atmosphere and heating are not re-
quired. Fourth, the printing efciency is high because a slurry is used
and it has ow-ability for printing and gets solidication faster.
In this paper, with 316L stainless steel as the raw material, the
slurry preparation, 3D printing, sintering, mechanical properties and
microstructure of the 3DGP process were investigated.
2.1. 3DGP process
Fig. 1 is the schematic diagram of the 3D gel printing (3DGP) process
proposed in this paper. The 3DGP process is composed of the following
steps: premixed solution preparation, slurry preparation, initiator addi-
tion and printing. Table 1 lists the composition of the raw materials,
which is one of the representative ratios suggested in our previous
work [2628].It is obvious that the high solid loading of slurry has
lower shrinkage and better forming precision. The 3DGP process will
be described in detail in the next parts.

2.2. Premixed solution and slurry preparation

Table 1
Composition of the raw materials. A non-aqueous solution was used for preventing metals from oxida-
Raw materials Content/vol.% tion, in which methaerylate-2-hydroxy ethyl (HEMA, AR, Sinopharm
316L stainless steel powder 62.50
Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd) and toluene (AR, Sinopharm Chemical
Toluene 26.58 Reagent Co., Ltd) were selected as the organic monomer and solvent
HEMA 8.96 respectively. At rst, HEMA fully dissolved in toluene to produce a
Oleic acid 1.20 premixed solution.
Benzoyl peroxide 0.36
316L particle (Long Ding Trading Company Ltd, China) was added in
TEMED 0.40
the above premixed solution, and metal slurry was prepared by stirring.

Fig. 2. SEM image of the 316L powder. Fig. 3. Particle size distribution of the 316L powder.
82 X. Ren et al. / Materials and Design 101 (2016) 8087
Fig. 4. Viscosity of the 316L particle slurry as a function of shear rate.
Oleic acid (AR, Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co. Ltd) was added as a
dispersant in order to improve the dispersion and suspension of the
metal particles in the premixed solution.
2.3. Initiator addition and printing
Benzoyl peroxide (BPO, AR, Beijing Yili Fine Chemicals) was selected
as an initiator of the premixed solution. The metal slurry and BPO
were delivered to the screw extruder, and were mixed with each
other by the screw. In order to adjust the gelation time, N, N, N, N
-tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED, AR, Sinopharm Chemical
Reagent Co. Ltd) was used as a catalyst and was delivered to the screw
extruder along with BPO.
The screw extruder and the printing nozzle were set on a 3D driving
mechanism. The mixed slurry left out the nozzle under the action of the
screw and solidied to form a part. For complete solidication, the
printed green sample was rstly dried in a drying box at 60 C for 5 h.
Fig. 5. Green samples printed by 3DGP with: (a) high extrusion rate 8.0 cm3/min, (b) optimum extrusion rate 7.0 cm3/min and (c) low extrusion rate 6.0 cm3/min.
Table 2
Printing conditions of 3DGP.
Printing condition Value
Nozzle diameter 0.4 mm
Layer height 0.2 mm
Extrusion rate 7.0 cm3/min
Printing speed 20 mm/s
2.4. Sintering
The dried green sample was debinded at a temperature at 450 C for
1 h in argon atmosphere in a tube furnace. Finally, sintering was carried
out at 1350 C for 2 h in a vacuum furnace [28].
2.5. Testing of material properties
The particle size distribution was tested by a laser particle analyzer
(BT-9300S, Dandong Better Co. Ltd., China). The viscosity of the metal
slurry was tested by a controlled stress rheometer under the shear
rate from 1 s1 to 1550 s1 at 25 C (Physica MRC 300 Modular Com-
pact Rheometer, Germany). The density of the printed and sintered
samples was determined by the Archimedes immersion method in
water. The appearance of the 316L particle and the microstructure of
the printed and sintered samples were characterized by a scanning elec-
tric microscope (SEM, ZEISS EVO18, Carl Zeiss NTS, Germany). The
surface roughness of samples was measured by a confocal laser scan-
ning microscope (CLSM, OLYPUS LEXT OLS4000, Japan).
The bending strength of the printed and sintered samples, which
were cut to a size of 5 mm 5 mm 35 mm, was measured by the
three-point bending test with an electronic universal testing machine
(Instron CMT 4305) at a loading rate of 0.5 mm/min. The hardness of
materials was determined by a Rockwell hardness tester (HR150A,
Huayin Instrument Co. Ltd., China). The thermo-decomposition behav-
iors of gel were determined by a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA,
SDT-Q600, TA Instruments, America) at a heating rate of 10 C/min
under the protection of high-purity argon gas.
 X. Ren et al. / Materials and Design 101 (2016) 8087 83

Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of the slurry gelation.

3. Results and discussion
3.1. The rheological behavior of the metal slurry
According to Table 1, 316L stainless steel particles were dispersed in
the premixed solution which is composed of HEMA and toluene. Oleic
acid was added as a dispersant to improve the suspension of the metal
particles in the premixed solution, and then the content of the 316L
particle can reach a value of 62.5 vol.%.
3DGP requires a stable ow-ability of particle which depends on the
size and shape of the particles. The ideal particle for the 3DGP could
have ne particle size, spherical shape and high bulk density. The
316L stainless steel particle used here was prepared by water atomiza-
tion process. Figs. 2 and 3 show the appearance and the particle size dis-
tribution of the 316L particle, respectively. The shape of the particles is
nearly spherical, and the average particle size is 9.2 m. The bulk density
and tap density are 3.2 and 4.1 g/cm3, respectively, and the Hauser ratio
of the particle is 1.28, indicating this particle has a higher packing
density and good ow-ability [29].
The rheological curve of the slurry is shown in Fig. 4. The viscosity
decreases with increasing the shear rate and reaches a stable state at a
shear rate above 60 s1. The slurry shows a pseudo plastic behavior,
and is close to the classic shear thinning uid. At higher shear rates,
viscosity decreases because of the disruption of the structures. At
lower shear rates, shear forces have no effect on agglomerates and the
viscosity of the slurry is high. The shear rate of the slurry that can be
extruded through a nozzle can be calculated with the Weissenberg
RabinowitschMooney equation [30].
 
4Q 3n 1
1
R3 4n
where is the shear rate (s1), Q is volumetric ow rate (m3/s), R is
the internal radius of the tube, n is power law index. From Fig. 4, the
predicted variation in viscosity was tted to the experimental data
using the power-law model. The best t to data is found at a value of
n = 0.39263. With the aid of Eq. (1), the calculated shear rate of the
slurry is 3.23 s 1, at which the viscosity of the slurry has decreased

Fig. 7. Green sample of a gear printed by 3DGP: (a) overview, (b) SEM morphology of the top surface, (c) SEM morphology of the side surface.
84 X. Ren et al. / Materials and Design 101 (2016) 8087

Table 3
The bending strength of the green samples prepared by different processes.

Process Material Binder Bending

strength/MPa

3DGP 316L HEMA 16.1 2.2

SLS [34] Carbon steel Nylon-12 3.12 0.18
Metal injection molding (MIM) [35] 316L PMMA 4.913.3
Press forming [36] FC-0205(FeCuC) EBS-wax 1220

substantially. This will be helpful for the slurry to ow out from the noz-
zle and then get viscous for holding its shape. This rheological behavior
shows that the slurry is suitable for being printed by 3DGP [2324,31].

3.2. Printing process

The slurry was delivered to the screw extruder of the 3DGP system
under an appropriate pressure of compressed air. Meanwhile the initia- Fig. 9. TG curves of polymeric gel with a heating rate of 10 C/min.
tor and catalyst were delivered to the screw extruder either. These
materials were blended well and extruded out by the screw through a
nozzle onto a substrate. (TEMED) were used as the organic monomer, initiator and catalyst re-
The extrusion rate of the slurry, the printing speed of the nozzle, the spectively. After mixed by the screw, the slurry starts gelation process
layer height and nozzle size are the key factors affecting the printing based on HEMA monomer free radical polymerization. The whole
quality. The literature [32] indicated that ll density can affect the qual- process of radical polymerization reaction generally consists of three
ity of the nal structure. The speed of rotation of the screw extruder, the elementary reactionschain initiation, chain propagation and chain
printing head speed and layer height can affect the ll density. In spite of termination [33].
the high printing head speed can improve manufacturing efciency, it is
(1) Chain initiation: Chain initiation contains two chemical reactions
required to be matched with the extrusion rate. The layer height is di-
as follows: First, the initiator (BPO) decomposes to generate free
rectly related with the size of nozzle. For example, as shown in Fig. 5,
radicals. Secondly, monomer radicals generate by the additional
when the extrusion rate is high, printed lines overlap and even collapse.
reaction of HEMA and primary radicals.
Excess printed slurry cannot solidify in time and may be pushed out-
ward by the nozzle during next movement. Finally, printed layers col-
lapse and the part cannot be formed. On the other hand, when the
extrusion rate is low, printed lines cannot be continuous and big pores
2
remain in the printed part. The printing speed of the nozzle and the
layer height have the similar effects. The nozzle size mainly affect print-
ing precision and surface roughness. Obviously, the printed sample has
good dimensional accuracy and surface quality with reducing the size of
nozzle, but the pressure of extrusion increases with reducing the size of
nozzle. What's more, the printing equipment becomes complicated and 3
their maintenance cost is rather high by using a rather small nozzle.
Finally, the optimum printing conditions in Table 2 were used.
(2) Chain propagation: The monomer radicals which are produced
3.3. Gelation process by chain initiation continuously combine HEMA monomer mole-
cules to generate chain free radicals, resulting in the polymer
For the binder of 3DGP, methaerylate-2-hydroxy ethyl (HEMA), chain growing. Tens of thousands monomer radicals can be com-
benzoyl peroxide (BPO) and N, N, N, N-tetramethylethylenediamine bined with each other to form a polymer chain radical in a very

Fig. 8. Fractograph of the green sample made by 3DGP (a) low (b) higher magnication.
 X. Ren et al. / Materials and Design 101 (2016) 8087 85

Fig. 10. The sintered 316L gear: (a) overview, (b) SEM morphology of the top surface, (c) SEM morphology of the side surface.

short period of time, eventually forming a chain structure of mac-
romolecules as follows.
place on these interfaces to form organic crosslinking. This is benet
for the bending strength.
It can also be seen in Fig. 8 that 316L particles distribute uniformly
in the organic binder and closely contact with each other. The green
density is 5.36 g/cm3.

4
3.5. The sintered sample

Where R is . The catalyst of TEMED can be used to accelerate
the polymerization. When TEMED is added, the time of polymerization
is signicantly shortened to several seconds.
(3) Chain termination: Because the activity of free radicals is lost,
chains no longer grow, and stable chains of polymer molecules are
formed to hold metal particles together (Fig. 6).
3.4. The green sample prepared by 3DGP
A gear as an example was printed as shown in Fig. 7(a). The printed
lines can be observed from Fig. 7(b) and (c). The top surface is homog-
enous and no defect is visible. The width of a printed line is 0.42 mm,
which is close to the diameter of the nozzle. The layer height is
0.21 mm from Fig. 7(c), which is also close to the parameter of layer
height. The shape of the slurry is cylindrical after it was extruded out
of the nozzle, and it is pressed by the nozzle and spreads out to ll the
space among the printed lines before gelation. The top and side surface
roughness of the green sample can be up to 3.5 0.5 m and 8.3
The polymeric gel should be burn out rstly before sintering among
metal particles. TG analysis was performed to determine the appropri-
ate debinding temperature. Fig. 9 is the TG curve of the polymeric gel
with a heating rate of 10 C/min under a owing argon atmosphere. It
can be seen that the polymeric gel begins to decompose at about
250 C. When the temperature is in the range of 300450 C, the poly-
meric gel decomposes violently. So the green sample was debinded at
a temperature of 450 C for 1 h in argon atmosphere in a tube furnace
in order that the polymeric gel could decompose completely. Finally,
sintering was carried out in the tube furnace at 1350 C for 2 h in a
vacuum furnace [28].
As shown in Fig. 10, the appearance of the sintered gear coincides
with its design.
Table 4
The top surface roughness of parts produced by different 3D printing processes.
Process Material Ra/m

0.7 m, respectively. Top surface Side surface

Table 3 lists the bending strength of green samples prepared by dif- 3DGP 316L 3.8 0.9 8.7 0.8
ferent processes with 316L particle. Obviously, 3DGP has great advan- FDM [37] ABS 24.7 4.6 16.1 2.5
tage in the bending strength of green sample. Fig. 10 shows the cross SLS [38] Polyamide 10.47 1.7
section of the green sample. The interfaces among the printed layers SLM [39] 316L 13.12 1.12 9.2 1.2
EBSM [40] 316L 7.9
and lines cannot be seen in Fig. 8, indicating that gelation also took
86 X. Ren et al. / Materials and Design 101 (2016) 8087

Table 5
Properties of sintered 316L samples prepared by different processes.

Process Density Yield strength Tensile strength Rockwell hardness (HRB)

/g cm3 /MPa /MPa

3DGP 7.73 0.06 174 13 488 15 88 2

SLM [41] 7.78 0.08 534 5.7 653 3.4
Gel-casting [28] 7.75 162 493 72
Powder Metallurgy [42] 6.9 210 390 45
Flat rolled [43] 7.98 170 485 95

Fig. 11. Microstructure of 316L sintered sample: (a) overview; (b) detail.

Fig. 12. Sample at different states: (a) three-dimensional model, (b) green sample, (c) sintered sample.

The top and side surface roughness of the sintered sample can be up advantage of simple structure of equipment. Furthermore, it can be ex-
to 3.8 0.9 m and 8.7 0.8 m respectively. The top and side surface pected that 3DGP could be used to prepare ceramics and metal-ceramic
roughness of parts produced by other 3D printing processes is also listed composites.
in Table 4. The roughness of parts produced by 3DGP is lower than other
3D printing processes. This is another great advantage of 3DGP. 4. Conclusions
The typical properties of 316L stainless steel prepared by different
processes are listed in Table 5. The tensile strength of 316L stainless A new 3D printing process, 3D gel-printing (3DGP), was proposed in
steel prepared by 3DGP can meet the MPIF35 and ASTM A240 stan- this paper, and as an example, 316L stainless steel gear was prepared by
dards. From this point of view, it is possible for 3DGP to produce 316L 3DGP. It can be concluded as follows:
parts with a complex shape in practical applications. The mechanical
properties should be improved in the future. (1) A metal slurry with a 316L particle content of 62.5 vol.% can be
Fig. 11 shows the cross-section of 316L samples sintered at 1350 C prepared with a HEMA-based gelation system, whose rheological
for 2 h. No feature between the printed layers and lines can be visible behavior is t for printing.
on the cross-section, illustrating that the sintered sample has a homoge- (2) Catalyst can accelerate the gelation so that complex shape of
neous microstructure. Since the relative density is about 96.8%, some parts could be setting during printing. The green sample has a
microspores still exist and uniformly disperse in the sintered sample.
Fig. 12 shows printed samples and Table 6 lists the dimensions of the
Table 6
three-dimensional model, the green sample and the sintered sample.
The dimensions of the three-dimensional model, the green sample and the sintered
The dimensions of the green sample are slight larger than the design sample.
value and the difference between them are close to the track width
Dimension Length/mm Width/mm Height/mm
and layer height, so the printing step in 3DGP can well control the
dimension. The sample shrinked after sintering. Design 32.00 16.00 8.00
Generally, 3DGP based on HEMA gelation system is a promising Green sample 32.49 0.02 16.46 0.02 8.21 0.02
Sintered sample 29.16 0.02 14.83 0.01 7.22 0.02
method for producing complex shape of parts because of its great
 X. Ren et al. / Materials and Design 101 (2016) 8087
strength of 16.1 2.2 MPa and a roughness of 3.5 0.5 m on
top surface.
(3) The sintered sample has a homogeneous microstructure and no
interface between the printed layers and lines was observed.
The sintered sample has a roughness of 3.8 0.9 m on top sur-
face and a tensile strength of 488 15 MPa.
(4) Generally, 3DGP based on HEMA gelation system is a promising
method for producing complex shape of parts.
References
[1] J.P. Kruth, M.C. Leu, T. Nakagawa, Progress in additive manufacturing and rapid
prototyping, CIRP Ann. Manuf. Technol. 47 (1998) 525540.
[2] S. Kumar, J.P. Kruth, Composites by rapid prototyping technology, Mater. Des. 31
(2010) 850856.
[3] E.O. Olakanmi, R.F. Cochrane, K.W. Dalgarno, A review on selective laser sintering/
melting (SLS/SLM) of aluminium alloy particles: processing, microstructure and
properties, Prog. Mater. Sci. 74 (2015) 401477.
[4] S. Tammas-Williams, H. Zhao, F. Lonard, F. Derguti, I. Todd, P.B. Prangnell, XCT
analysis of the inuence of melt strategies on defect population in Ti-6Al-4V compo-
nents manufactured by selective electron beam melting, Mater. Charact. 102 (2015)
4761.
[5] H. Kalami, M. Vahdati, Design and construction of a droplet based manufacturing
machine, Electronic Manufacturing Technology Symposium (IEMT), 35th IEEE/
CPMT International 2012, pp. 14.
[6] P. Yu, G.B. Schaffer, Microstructural evolution during pressureless inltration of
aluminium alloy parts fabricated by selective laser sintering, Acta Mater. 57
(2009) 163170.
[7] Y. Liu, Y.Q. Yang, S.Z. Mai, D. Wang, C. Song, Investigation into spatter behavior
during selective laser melting of AISI316L stainless steel powder, Mater. Des. 87
(2015) 787806.
[8] E. Yasa, J.P. Kruth, Microstructural investigation of selective laser melting 316L stain-
less steel parts exposed to laser re-melting, Procedia Eng. 19 (2011) 389395.
[9] K. Guan, Z.M. Wang, M. Gao, X.Y. Li, X.Y. Zeng, Effects of processing parameters on
tensile properties of selective laser melted 304 stainless steel, Mater. Des. 50
(2013) 581586.
[10] A. Yamaguchi, K. Gotoh, T. Tomita, S. Fukumoto, Inltration of light metals into
stainless steel preforms fabricated by indirect selective laser sintering, J. Jpn. Inst.
Metals 75 (2011) 651656.
[11] Q. Jia, D. Gu, Selective laser melting additive manufacturing of Inconel 718 super
alloy parts: densication, microstructure and properties, J. Alloys Comp. 585
(2014) 713721.
[12] T. Wang, Y.Y. Zhu, S.Q. Zhang, H.B. Tang, H.M. Wang, Grain morphology evolution
behavior of titanium alloy components during laser melting deposition additive
manufacturing, J. Alloys Comp. 632 (2015) 505513.
[13] H.J. Gong, K. Ra, H.F. Gu, G.D. Janaki Ram, T. Starr, B. Stucker, Inuence of defects on
mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V components produced by selective laser melting
and electron beam melting, Mater. Des. 86 (2015) 545554.
[14] M. Simonelli, Y.Y. Tse, C. Tuck, Effect of the build orientation on the mechanical
properties and fracture modes of SLM Ti-6Al-4V, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 616 (2014) 111.
[15] N. Hrabe, T. Quinn, Effects of processing on microstructure and mechanical proper-
ties of a titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) fabricated using electron beam melting (EBM),
part 1: distance from build plate and part size, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 573 (2013)
264270.
[16] L. Thijs, F. Verhaeghe, T. Craeghs, J.V. Humbeeck, J.P. Kruth, A study of the micro-
structural evolution during selective laser melting of Ti6Al4V, Acta Mater. 58
(2010) 33033312.
[17] M. Orme, R.F. Smith, Enhanced aluminum properties by means of precise droplet
deposition, J. Manuf. Sci. Eng. Trans. 122 (2000) 484493.
87
[18] M. Fang, S. Chandra, C.B. Park, Building three-dimensional objects by deposition of
molten metal droplets, Rapid Prototyp. J. 14 (2008) 4452.
[19] U. Scheithauer, E. Schwarzer, H. Richter, T. Moritz, Thermoplastic 3D printingan
additive manufacturing method for producing dense ceramics, Int. J. Appl. Ceram.
Technol. 12 (2015) 2631.
[20] U. Scheithauer, A. Bergner, E. Schwarzer, Studies on thermoplastic 3D printing of
steel-zirconia composites, J. Mater. Res. 29 (2014) 19311940.
[21] J. Ebert, E. Ozkol, R. Telle, H. Fischer, K. Uibel, Direct inkjet printing: a versatile
method of complex shape manufacturing, Proceedings of the 10th International
Conference of the European Ceramic Society 2008, pp. 466469.
[22] J. Ebert, E. Ozkol, A. Zeichner, K. Uibel, O. Weiss, U. Koops, H. Telle, H. Fischer, Direct
inkjet printing of dental prostheses made of zirconia, J. Dent. Res. 88 (2009)
673676.
[23] Y. Li, L. Li, B. Li, Direct write printing of three-dimensional ZrO2 biological scaffolds,
Mater. Des. 72 (2015) 1620.
[24] B. Cappi, E. Ozkol, J. Ebert, Direct inkjet printing of Si3N4: characterization of ink,
green samples and microstructure, J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. 28 (2008) 26252628.
[25] A.C. Young, O.O. Omatete, J.M. Aanney, Gelcasting of alumina, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 74
(1991) 612618.
[26] H. Shao, X. Liu, Y. Ji, Z. Guo, Near-net shape processing of spherical high NbTiAl
alloy powder by gelcasting, Int. J. Min. Met. Mater 20 (2013) 10761080.
[27] Y. Li, Z. Guo, Gel casting of WC8 wt% Co tungsten cemented carbide, Int. J. Refract.
Met. Hard Mat. 26 (2008) 472477.
[28] Y. Li, Z. Guo, J. Hao, Gel casting of 316L stainless steel, J. Univ. Sci. Tech. 14 (2007)
507511.
[29] S. Spath, H. Seitz, Inuence of grain size and grain-size distribution on workability of
granules with 3D printing, Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol. 70 (2014) 135144.
[30] R.C. Dorf, The Engineering Handbook, second ed. CRC Press, Florida, 2004.
[31] B. Cappi, J. Ebert, R. Telle, Rheological properties of aqueous Si3N4 and MoS2 suspen-
sions tailor-made for direct inkjet printing, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 94 (2011) 111116.
[32] S. Hong, C. Sanchez, H. Du, N. Kim, Fabrication of 3D printed metal structures by use
of high-viscosity Cu paste and a screw extruder, J. Electron. Mater. 44 (2015)
836841.
[33] E. Charles, Radical Polymerization, in: Seymour/Carraher's Polymer Chemistry,
seventh ed. CRC Press, Florida, 2008 119196.
[34] C. Yan, Y. Shi, J. Yang, J. Liu, Preparation and selective laser sintering of nylon-12
coated metal particles and post processing, J. Mater. Process. Technol. 209 (2009)
57855792.
[35] M.A. Omar, H.A. Davies, P.F. Messer, B. Ellis, The inuence of PMMA content on the
properties of 316L stainless steel MIM compact, J. Mater. Process. Technol. 113
(2001) 477481.
[36] L. Tremblay, F. Chagnon, Y. Thomas, M. Gagne, Green machining of P/M parts using
enhanced green strength lubricating systems, SAE Techni. Paper. No. 2001-01-0399
2001, pp. 19.
[37] C.J.L. Perez, Analysis of the surface roughness and dimensional accuracy capability of
fused deposition modeling processes, Int. J. Prod. Res. 40 (2001) 28652881.
[38] A. Sachdeva, S. Singh, V.S. Sharma, Investigating surface roughness of parts pro-
duced by SLS process, Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol. 64 (2013) 15051516.
[39] G. Strano, L. Hao, R.M. Everson, K.E. Evans, Surface roughness analysis, modelling
and prediction in selective laser melting, J. Mater. Process. Technol. 213 (2013)
589597.
[40] C. Guo, F. Lin, W. Ge, Study on the fabrication process of 316L stainless steel via
electron beam selective melting, Chin. J. Mech. Eng. 50 (2014) 152153.
[41] A. Mertens, S. Reginster, Q. Contrepois, T. Dormal, O. Lemaire, J.L. Beckers,
Microstructures and mechanical properties of stainless steel AISI 316L processed
by selective laser melting, Adv. Mater. Res. 783-786 (2014) 898903.
[42] MPIF, Standard 35, Materials Standards for PM Structural Parts, 2009 ed. Metal
Particle Industries Federation, Princeton, NJ, 2009.
[43] ASTM A240, Standard Specication for Chromium and Chromiumnickel Stainless
Steel Plate. Sheet, and Strip for Pressure Vessels and General Applications, 2005
ed. American Society of Testing Materials, West Conshohocken, PA, 2005.